Cybernetical mechanisms



April 11, 1961 M. R. PETI 2,978,919

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11b llllllollllll United States Patent Qfifice Patented Apr. 11, 1961 MECHANICAL SYSTEM FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF CYBERNETIC'AL MECHANISMS Marceau Roger Petit, Clichy, France, assignor, by mesne assignments, to Cyber Socit Anonyme, Yverdon, Switzerland Filed Aug. 6, 1957, Ser. No. 676,600

Claims priority, application Morocco Nov. 22, 1956 16 Claims. (Cl. 74-435) The present invention relates to a mechanical system for the production of cybernetic mechanisms for followup, control or calculating systems capable of carrying out operations concerned with coded digital informations, representing finite sets, recorded indications and constants of the mechanism.

This system is made up of an assembly of rotary elements to which are applied impulses capable of representing information in the form of mechanical impulses modulated in position and in duration in relation to scale of time, or input reference scale, created in the system and inherent therewith, and which then carry out on the impulses which represent the said information and all intermediate results, one or more of various desired conversions such as: comparison, selection, distribution, numerical, calculation, transfer transposition, implication, or other conversions; and which finally record the results obtained or transmit them to another system in the form of impulses emitted towards the exterior and modulated in position in relation to an output scale, which may be the scale of initial time or a scale subordinate to the initial scale.

Angular movements of pro-determined amplitudesof the said rotary elements form the impulses. These impulses are modulated in position by controlling the instants at which the said elements begin to rotate. These same impulses may be modulated in duration by maintaining the motion of the said elements according to the laws governing the movements of the elements which maintain their motion; these latter movements being themselves capable of forming impulses which can be modulated in position and in duration.

The modulations of position and of duration are effected by the rotary elements acting together momentarily. The elements so acting constitute between each other momentary mechanical circuits.

The modulation of position is effected by co-operation of a non-homokinetic nature, that is by a non-direct, or varying ratio connection, between some of the rotary elements, and the modulation of duration by co-operation of a homokinetic nature, that is by a direct or constant-ratio connection, between some of the elements.

Each system in accordance with the invention includes at least one rotary element that is controlled by at least two other rotary elements. Each controlled element comprises for its control, at least one stopping means or amplitude-limiting means which maintains it in a position of detection, at least one detecting means enabling it to be moved from the said position of detection, and

g at least one driven means by which it is rotated positively between its successive detecting positions and which enable it to be given a movement of rotation except in its detecting position or positions. At least one of the said other elements comprises, to ensure the control, at least one homokinetic rotary driving means co-operating with the driven means of the controlled member. At least one of the said other elements comprises a locking means co-operating with the stopping means of the controlled element in order to maintain this latter in the detecting position. At least one of the said other elements comprises at least one exciting means co-operating with the detecting means of the controlled element so as to ensure the rotation of the said element out of its detecting position or positions. A

Each controlled rotary element carries out the following functions in any system in accordance with the invention.

(a) It can be stopped in at least one control position, known as the detecting position, by at least one other element;

(1;) It may receive, in the detecting position, an excitation from another element in order that it can pass through the detecting position;

(0) It may be driven in rotation by at least one element when it is placed in any position whatever, except in a position of detection. This driving in rotation may be considered as the maintenance of the impulse.

The functions (a) and (b) provide the position modul ation, while the function (e) ensures the duration modulation.

Each controlled element is thus controlled by at least one homokinetic connection and by at least one nonhomokinetic connection, the controlling elements in these two connections being different, and is capable of controlling at least one other element by at least one homokinetic or non-homokinetic connection, the whole of the connections in which one element may take part forming its programme of connections,

The co-operation means are provided on the rotary elements in such manner that the connections (with different elements) follow each other on each controlled element without any discontinuity and at the most with a partial overlap.

The momentary connection means are provided on the rotary elements'in order to form mechanical circuits between the said elements, in which circuits the homokinetic connections memorize, during their continuance, the differences of position resulting from the non-homokinetic connections, these memorizations being provided in order to preserve the resultant differences, the time necessary for their participation in the determination of other resultant diiferences and/or for the emission of results to the exterior of the mechanism.

It is also necessary to state what is meant here by the position of an element and by difference of positions. The position or angular location a of an element is the measure of the angular displacement which exists between a reference mark (real or imaginary) carried by the said element and a fixed initial position, the displacement being measured from the initial position and in a direction of rotation of the element which will be called normal or positive.

In the examples of the invention particularly described hereinafter, the positions of an element are represented by integers, said positions beings separated from each other by an interval which will be called a step.

The position 7 of an element may then be determined by the formula:

a the mean angular value of the step 

